Gandhi Ambalam,
Chairman,
Singapore
Democratic
Party
Friends and
fellow Singaporeans,
May Day is an annual event
to honor the workers of the world. In Singapore, it is only
appropriate that our workers, who hold up our economy, are honored
and have their rights protected.
There are about 2.5
million workers in Singapore. But they are left with no rights
under the PAP which, ironically, came to power on the backs of our
workers in 1959.
After winning power, one
of the first things that the PAP did was to remove some of those
basic rights – the right to decent wages, the right to proper
annual leave, medical care etc.
What was worse, the PAP
introduced draconian laws in the late 60s such as the Employment
Act, the Trade Unions Act and the Industrial Relations Act to deny
our workers their rightful entitlements.
These three pieces of
archaic legislation that are still being retained at present are in
fact used by the employers to exploit our workers. In other words,
our workers became victims of big business, including Government
and Temasek-linked companies.
Over the years, instead of
improving the lot of our workers, the PAP has further exploited
them through the National Trades Union Congress.
The PAP set up the NTUC in
1961 after arresting trade unionists and deregistering their
genuine trade unions that existed then.
The NTUC has been a
failure in representing the interests of our workers. Despite being
around for 47 years, the NTUC has been able to bring under its fold
only less than 20 per cent of our workforce.
The NTUC seems to be
everywhere and doing everything including running supermarkets,
selling anything from insurance to duck rice, and even running
massage and funeral parlors - everything except looking after the
interests of our workers.
What is most obnoxious is
that NTUC is in collusion with the government to indiscriminately
let in foreigners to take away the jobs of our workers. One-third,
or more, of the workforce in Singapore is made up of
foreigners.
The uncontrolled influx of
cheap foreign labor has led to our workers reduced to doing
contract and casual jobs.
It
is common to see our workers holding two jobs with long working
hours just to survive. In contrast, our ministers demand millions
of dollars in what they call salary.
The PAP government manages
one of the most centrally controlled economies in the world and it
often intervenes and manipulates market forces with the result that
our workers are left high and dry at the mercy of the
employers.
There’s no minimum wage.
The PAP government and the NTUC are sacrificing the workers’ right
to earn a decent living wage by retaining labor intensive
industries whose needs are met by the foreign cheap labor.
Most of the
jobs created go to foreigners, leading to economic hardship and
displacement of Singaporeans.
This downhill path of
depending on cheap labor is badly hurting the morale of our workers
and their productivity.
Another bugbear is
inflation that has hit a 26-year high. To a certain extent the
problem is global. But the major responsibility for this high
inflation has to be borne by the Government that has introduced a
slew of increases for govt services including ERP gantries, GST,
transport costs, hospital charges and exorbitant fees at
institutions of higher learning while foreigners are provided with
subsidized and free education with taxpayers’ money.
The continued neglect of
Singaporeans have led to families finding it increasingly difficult
to cope with the constant upping in the price of essentials while
their incomes remain stagnant or further suppressed by the foreign
cheap labor.
School
children go hungry because they can’t afford to pay for the food at
the canteen. Can you imagine all this is happening in a First World
country that Singapore claims to be?
The Government claims that
a record number of 234,900 jobs were created last year, up from
176,000 jobs in the previous year.
But of
these only 38 per cent of them went to locals, which include
permanent residents. We are not given the unemployment rate for
citizens.
Here I
remember what the founding chairman of the PAP, Dr Toh Chin Chye
said some time back.
He said
that he did not believe the statistics and data put out by the
government and that we don’t know whether we are on solid rock or
thin ice!
But billions of dollars of
our reserves are being used to rescue sinking Western banks and
financial institutions ravaged by the sub-prime crisis. But when it
comes to helping our poor with an additional $30 in allowance a
month, extensive debate takes place.
The Singapore Democratic
Party wants our workers to regain their lost rights and free
themselves from the clutches of the greedy, exploitative and
dictatorial PAP and its approved NTUC.
The fact
that PAP ministers and MPs are running the union makes a mockery of
the labor movement.
Our workers must be
allowed to form independent trade unions to protect their
interests. Employers, including those
from the US, Germany and Japan have their own organizations in
Singapore to ensure that their demands are met. But our workers
have no say in their own country.
Forty-nine years of PAP
rule and domination has led to a mass exodus of our bright and
young to other countries.
This is due
to PAP’s economically, socially and politically stifling attitude.
Those who
are unable to emigrate find themselves increasingly displaced by
foreign workers who are prepared to accept low wages.
What happened to PAP’s
core value of placing community interest first before self?
Like other
PAP promises of more good years, a golden period and that no one
will be left behind, this one is also an empty rhetoric.
Let’s not be fooled by the
PAP and its NTUC on this May Day.
It’s time
that we say enough is enough. Let us unite to call for
the repeal of the archaic and draconian anti-labor laws that
shackle the labor movement.
We
are in a different age where innovation and creativity are crucial
talents if our country is going to compete in the league of First
World nations.
To do this
we cannot have a First World for the PAP with Third World wages for
our workers.
On
May 1, my colleagues and I will be at Toa Payoh Central to mark
Workers’ Day.
We will
have the Tak Boleh Tahan petition calling on the Government to stop
exploiting our workers.
Come and
join us for the day and support the campaign. I look forward to
seeing you.
Together, let us work
towards a free and democratic Singapore where prosperity belongs to
all.
Thank you. Happy MAY
DAY.
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2008/05/02/sdps-may-day-mesage/
